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Gardening on Mars

LOWLY cotton grass could one day be the first flower planted on the Red Planet.

In a study to see which plants might survive on the planet to help make it habitable for humans, one of the lead candidates was Eriophorum, normally found on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. James Graham, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that despite its delicate appearance, cotton grass can survive harsh conditions such as lack of oxygen. And as it is entirely wind-pollinated, it doesn’t rely on animals.

The Martian soil would first have to be treated with microbes to shift carbon …